The present invention relates to an ozone supplying apparatus. More particularly, it relates to an ozone supplying apparatus for producing and storing ozone by using electricity, which is capable of supplying stored ozone at specified ratios to an ozone-consuming object either continuously or intermittently.
There has been conventionally known an intermittent type ozone supplying apparatus for temporarily storing ozone which comprises the following components as shown in FIG. 8: an ozone generator 50, an oxygen supply source 51, a circulating blower 52, an adsorption/desorption tower 53 for temporarily storing generated ozone, a cooling source 54 for cooling the adsorption/desorption tower 53, a heating source 55 for heating the adsorption/desorption tower 53, a water flow ejector 56 for taking ozone out from the adsorption/desorption tower 53 through decompression and suction, a group of switch valves 57a to 57g, and an object 58 to be treated from which living things are removed by liquid containing ozone. The adsorption/desorption tower 53 is of double cylinder type, wherein an inner cylinder is filled with an ozone adsorbent and an outer cylinder is filled with a heating medium. Silica gel is generally used as the adsorbent, and ethylene glycol or alcohol group as the heating medium. The circulating blower 52, ozone generator 50 and adsorption/desorption tower 53 constitute, in this order, a single circulating system.
Operations will now be explained. There are two operations, namely an adsorbing operation and a desorbing operation of ozone.
The adsorbing operation will first be explained. Oxygen is supplied by the oxygen supplying source 51 so that the pressure in the circulating system is always a constant pressure. At this time, the pressure is normally maintained at 1.5 kg/cm.sup.2. When oxygen is made to flow in the circulating system by the circulating blower 52 while the switch valves 57c and 57d are in an opened condition, a part of the oxygen is converted into ozone through silent discharge to generate ozonized oxygen while passing through the discharge space of the ozone generator 50, and the ozonized oxygen is then transferred to the adsorption/desorption tower 53. The adsorvent in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 selectively adsorbs ozone, and the remaining oxygen is returned to the circulating blower 52 through the switch valve 57c. Oxygen which has been consumed as ozone is supplemented through the oxygen supply source 51. At this time, the temperature of the ozone adsorbent is cooled by the cooling source 54 to not more than -30.degree. C. This is because the ozone adsorbing amount of the ozone adsorbent largely varies depending on the temperature. That is, by lowering the temperature, the ozone adsorbing amount increases and by raising the temperature, the ozone adsorbing amount decreases. Therefore, when adsorbing ozone, the adsorbent is cooled, and when desorbing ozone, the temperature of the adsorbent is raised.
When the adsorbent in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 has adsorbed ozone to approach the ozone saturation adsorption amount, the desorbing operation of ozone is performed. In the desorbing operation, operations of the ozone generator 50, the circulating blower 52 and cooling source 54 are terminated and the switch valves 57a to 57d are closed. Thereafter, the heating source 55 and water flow ejector 56 start their operations and switch valves 57e to 57g are opened. In order to enable easy desorption of ozone adsorbed at the adsorbent, heat is applied from the heating source 55 to raise temperature of the adsorbent. Then, by decompressing for sucking ozone in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 at one stroke through the water flow ejector 56, ozone is made to disperse and dissolve into water in the water flow ejector 56 which is then sent as ozone water to places where ozone is used, thereby removal of living things is performed in the object 58 to be treated. By decompression for suction, the achieved pressure in the adsorption/desorption tower 53 is made to be approximately 0.1 kg/cm.sup.2 (absolute pressure). When the desorbing period is completed in this way, the process returns to the initial absorbing operation and is coutinuously repeated.
The above conventional intermittent type ozone supplying apparatus presents a drawback that chemical reactive substances, which are generated by reaction of ozone with substances included in a fluid into which ozone is injected, are made to flow into water resources and badly effect the environment thereby. Further, for treating generated chemical reactive substances at real time, a chemical substance removing device of quite high efficiency would be required.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object thereof to provide an ozone supplying apparatus capable of decreasing the amount of fluid containing chemical reactive substances therein which are generated by reaction with ozone.